This issue is all about our trip to Hungary in June. Reviews of
written material from the conference and from the International Society
for Shamanistic Research, which sponsored the conference, an article
about the trip, photographs, and other materials we hope you will enjoy
and gain from. While we can't give you the whole story here, hopefully
we can give you a short "tour" of our experiences, and resources to
find out more.

What is not widely known in this country, except by scholars of
shamanism, is that Hungary has been home to many of the greatest
scholars of shamanism. Vilmos Dioszegi is unquestionably the father of
shamanistic scholarship in Europe and the West, despite the fact that
the majority of his work was undertaken when Hungary was under Soviet
occupation-- it is a miracle that he was able to do so much valuable
work with the repressive politics of the Soviets to deal with. Those
regimes were notoriously hostile to shamanism to begin with. When he
died an early death in 1972, it was to Mihaly Hoppal that he passed the
flame, and Dr. Hoppal has carried it well, as Crow points out in the
reviews below.

Also I want to apologize (hopefully for the last time) for the lapse in
publication of the newsletter. We're working on catching up with our
projected schedule. We had e-mail glitches throughout the summer
that
slowed us down. Additionally we have gone through a change in computers
and a temporary loss of email addresses, hopefully all remedied now. If
you are one of our workshop contact people for your area, it would help
us if
you would please check with folks on your workshop list to make sure
they are getting the newsletter. Another one is also in the works and
should be out within the week. With luck we should be getting caught up
in the next few months, so if you have been waiting to submit material
please send it at your earliest convenience.

Bright Blessings,
Bekki and Crow

Upcoming Issues of the Newsletter
Issue 10, July: Living
Shamanically: The Food Issue, deadline to submit: 12/30/2007
We are looking for articles, reviews, etc on wild food and foraging; slow food; food as medicine (particularly TCM
and Ayurvedic approaches) for this issueIssue 11, August: Healing Techniques,
Take 2 , revised
deadline to submit: 1/15/2008We are looking for articles, reviews,
etc on bodywork techniques, energy healing, and other
techniques which complement or enhance shamanic healingIssue 12, September:Shamanicallly:Integrating
Shamanic Spiritual Practice into Mainstream Life and Culture,
revised deadline to
submit: 2/1/2008 In what ways has practicing shamanism,
personally or professionally, made a difference in your life? Please
share...Thanks to
Michelle Sampson for suggesting this theme!Issue 13,Living
Shamanically: Healing Our
Companion Animals deadline to submit: 2/15/2008If you have an idea for a theme for an
upcoming newsletter we'd love to
hear from you.

Grandmother
Twylah
We received the news recently that Grandmother Twylah Nitsch, the
Grandmother and carrier of wisdom for the Seneca Wolf Clan, passed away
on the 21st of August. Known for many things, she was the spiritual guide behind the
Medicine Cards, and hosted many spiritual gatherings and
teachings, at which she welcomed all those who were sincere in their
spiritual quest, regardless of ethnicity or nationality. She was a
gracious person and carried much wisdom. Even though I was
only privileged to spend a limited amount of time in her presence, I
had a number of friends who were in her circle, and I came to respect
her highly and care about her deeply.
Our hearts and prayers go out to all of those who mourn her.

--
Submitted by Bekki

Your
Feedback

It Works

Shamanic practice works. Simple as that.

For a period of 7 months this year, my wife & I were faced with
selling or renting one property & obtaining another. There were
many twists & turns on the path & decisions to make along the
way. As with anything BIG in this game of life, we do what all good
people do, take it to the shaman! Crow worked with us every step of the
way, to check in with the other realm & see what the allies,
ancestors & anybody else willing to listen advised. When human
things like self-doubt & fear & stress creep in, journey work
& communication with the allies & following their guidance is
the way to go. Within days of the most recent piece of work at our
November journey circle, where Crow again journeyed on the issue &
the group sent healing energy & intention with me as the channel
directing the flow, the townhouse was fully rented with 2 stable
tenants!

Rik Fire

Budapest: Parliament; Church spires
(foreground) are adjacent to the Institute.

Conference
PhotosBelow: Conference participants
head for the art installation in the
beech forest, a 20 minute walk from the retreat center. Dobogoko, the
site of the center, is said to be the center of the world. Pictured are
scholars from Germany, Italy, U.S., Serbia, and India.

Opposite: A 3 piece
Hungarian dance band specializing in music of Transylvania; a conference
participant sitting in on drums. On the wall are photos of Siberian
shamans taken by one of the scholars.

Mihaly
Hoppal and Vilmos
Dioszegi:An Appreciation

Reviews by Crow

In
preparing the Newsletter
about our
trip to Hungary, Bekki asked me to review Shamans and Traditions by
Mihaly
Hoppal and Shamanism, Selected
Writings of
Vilmos Dioszegi, edited by Mihaly Hoppal.But
how can one simply "review" the
work of giants?

On our
way to Hungary we had
the joy of
spending a few days in East Sussex with Chris and Sharon. Discussing
the
upcoming shamanic conference Chris, very reasonably, asked, "Why is
Hungary such a centre of shamanic study?"A
few days later, sitting by luxurious happenstance
in the
office of
Professor Hoppal in Budapest, chatting quite unexpectedly with the
man
himself, I asked him the same question!

His
answer
was quite simple:
he,
Hoppal, is the reason! (And this is quite frankly true, Michael Harner
not withstanding...Editor). After a suitably dramatic pause (he is a
great
raconteur) he quickly pointed out that it is not him and his work alone
but
also the legacy of Dioszegi which he has carried since his mentor's
untimely
death in 1972.

Dioszegi published his first
paper on
shamanism in 1947, shortly after he became a fellow of the Ethnographic
Museum
in Budapest.His 106th publication was
the year he died and there have been five posthumous works: a mighty
oeuvre,
most of it based on original fieldwork in Siberia and Mongolia,
complimented by
extensive museological study in original collections in the Soviet
Union,
Eastern Europe, Siberia and Mongolia.

Dioszegi
was a genius on
many levels. As
with so many Eastern European scholars, he mastered numerous languages
and
wrote prolifically in many of them. E.G., he is the author of the
definitive
(1974) Encyclopaedia Britannica article Shamanism which in nine pages
outlined,
explained and laid out major controversies about our topic (p1). As one
can see
in his Selected Writings, he was comfortable with many of the major
styles of
ethnography including the study of a society (How to Become a Shaman
among the
Sagais, p27), tracing out material cultural interconnections (The
Origins of
the Evenki "Shaman Mask" of Transbaikalia, p107), and analyzing
details of shamanic songs (A
Nanai Shaman Song Sung at Healing Rites
p215). He
did the ground work, set the pace and direction for much of the
shamanic
research being done today by scholars from all over the world as
presented, for
instance, at the conference Bekki and I attended.

Selected Writings contains
reprints in
English of 11 of Doszegi's key papers, an Introduction to his Life and
Works
by Mihaly Hoppal and a comprehensive Bibliography.To
own this classic of shamanic scholarship
is well worthwhile, both for its 300 packed pages of detailed content
and as apiece of history.If
you are interested we encourage you to contact
Akadmiai Kiado, www.akkrt.hu,
e.mail: export@akkrt.hufor details.

Shamanistic
scholarship
would simply not
be where it is today without the tireless efforts of Mihaly
Hoppal.After hosting and
overseeing the intense five days of our conference he flew off to
Russia for a
summer of field work with shamanic peoples.After
a brief few days back in Budapest this courtlyscholar
and charming gentleman flies off for
more research, this time in the outer reaches of China.He researches and writes endlessly, directs
two Hungarian research institutes, is the long standing President of
the
International Society for Shamanistic Research and Co-editor of its
journal
SHAMAN.He has certainly comfortably
taken on Dioszegi's mantle and carries on the work so well begun.

Shamans and Traditions is a
new (2007)
collection of his work including 15 articles and 45 fascinating
illustrations.He looks at our field of
interest from many different perspectives.He
draws on plenty of ethnographic work,his
own and that of others (3.Eco-Animism
of Siberian Shamanhood
p17 and
12. Tracing Shamans in Tuva
p111). He also takes a broader, deeper and
more
philosophical look at shamanistic studies (2. Is Shamanism a Folk
Religion? p11
and 15. Shamanic Narratives
as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind).

One of
the most fascinating
aspects of
my Hungarian experience this spring was the discovery of how
significant the
country's shamanic roots are to many Hungarians today.The
national TV network (which broadcasts on
a worldwide satellite system to the many Hungarians outside their
national
borders) filmed many aspects of our conference.They
later broadcast a week of Shamanism around the
world
including a
daily interview with scholars at the conference (including Bekki and
myself)
and a whole day of material about worldwide shamanism and how it helps
to
understand contemporary Hungarian culture.This
was an interest ofVilmos
Dioszegi and Professor Hoppal is now in the forefront of this work.Three articles in Shamans and Traditions
reflect this: 9. Shamanism
and the Belief System of the Ancient
Hungarians
p77,10. Traces of Shamanism in
Hungarian Folk Beliefs p82, and 11. The Role of Shamanism in Hungarian
Cultural
Identity p.90.

Shamans and Traditions is
also worth
adding to your library for all the above reasons. It too is available
from
Akadmiai Kiado, www.akkrt.hu, e.mail: export@akkrt.hu.
Any of our readers in the Athens area, or visiting here, are welcome to
have a closer look at
these
books and at the journal, SHAMAN.They
are all in the library here.

Photos taken of a slide presentation at the
conference. The man in the foregroundis looking
at a new drum prepared for the woman anthrolopogist who has been
working with them and is being initiated as a new shaman.

Testing the drum for the new shaman.

Shamanizing while the
young ones look on. Notice the reindeer skin boots the shaman is
wearing, and the face of the spirit depicted on the drum. This drum
shape is typical of the region and group affiliation.

Detail of
a shaman's drum. In the two tribal groups where these photos were
taken, the drums have a Y-shaped handle for grasping. Dr. Hoppal
gave a slide presentation which covered the many types of shaman's
drums in use across a wide geographic and ethnic
range, including the varieties of structural and decorative
differences.

Journal
Review
by Crow
SHAMAN,
An
International Journal for Shamanistic Research

Journal
of the
International Society for Shamanistic Research (ISSR)
published by Molnar
and Kelemen Oriental Publishers, Budapest, from Spring 1993 to present

reviewed by Crow

The Church of Earth Healing
is the proud owner of a complete run of Shaman, including
Volume 15,
Numbers 1 and 2, which was distributed to everyone who attended the
recent 8th
International Conference of the ISSR (see elsewhere in this Newsletter
for more
details of the Conference).

For anyone and
everyone who needs to learn more about shamanism, worldwide, reading
this
journal is an absolute must.We read it
cover to cover and every one of our copies is flagged with numerous
colourful
sticky notes, recalling us to articles read and not forgotten, to be
used in
our own teaching and writing. Reading Shaman is not
necessarily an easy
task.Most of the authors are world‑class
scholars in many academic fields reporting on their research, often
fieldwork,
with depth and intensity and often in technical language. (Alas, the
inner
workings of musicological analyses of shaman's songs still quite escape
me.)
Still, it is worthwhile, especially with the inclusion of photographs
since
2001 and colour illustrations since 2005.

The very first issue
we received was V.2,n.1, Spring 1994.It
opened with Language, Symbol and
Dance: An Analysis of Historicity in Movement and Meaning
by
Laszlo Kurti (a famous Hungarian scholar of folklore); perhaps not a
title that
would draw your eye.Bekki picked it
up, started to read and was dumbfounded for almost 60 pages. This
followed on
the time she had been doing very deep ancestor work and this article,
about
shamanic
survivals in Hungarian folk culture, supported virtually all of what
she had
learned through her ancestor journeys.Kurti's
work was seminal in Bekki's search for her
Hungarian roots.What we did not fully
realize until the 8th
Conference is that the documentation of shamanic survivals in
Hungarian
culture is a very important driving force for many scholars there,
perhaps even
a major theme in the contemporary Hungarian search for cultural roots.

There is a fair
amount of theoretical discussion in Shaman.Two of my favourite articles along that line were by James
A.
Overton in V.6, 1998: Shamanic
Realism: Latin American Literature and
the
Shamanic Perspective in v.1, and Shamanism and Clinical Hypnosis: A
Brief
Comparative Analysis in v.2.Overton
was in the Department of Cognitive Science, University of California,
San
Diego.

In approaching
literature described as possessing 'fantastic realism,'his intention was the application of a
theory, "based on the identification and contextualization of shamanic
and/or shamanistic characters, elements, and symbolism presented in
these texts
and habitually conjoined to formulate a world view whose cultural roots
can be
directly or indirectly traced to shamanic origins."

While accomplishing
his ends he presents numerous powerful descriptions and definitions
very useful
to understanding any shamanic phenomena. E.g.: "Still pulsing with the
remnants of shamanic or shamanistic esoterica, the legends, myths,
religions
and literatures of many societies represent multicoloured and contoured
leaves
sprouting from a richly ramified common trunk with roots sunk deep into
the
soil of our Paleolithic prehistory."

In comparing
therapeutic hypnosis and shamanism he lead us to numerous insights
about both
practices and concludes, "clinical hypnosis in its most comprehensive
sense is simply a cultural and historical adaptation of shamanism, the
most
widespread and archaic spiritual and therapeutic tradition

There is a
'must read' article in Volume 15 !Ede Frecska (Chief of Psychiatry at the
National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Budapest with 30
years of
practice, research and teaching in the US and Europe) and Luis Eudardo
Luna
(Senior Lecturer at the Swedish School of Economics, Helsinki, and
Director of
Wasiwaska, Research Center for the Study of Psychointegrator Plants,
Visionary
Art and Consciousness in Florianopolis, Brazil) have writtenThe
Shamanic Healer: Master of Nonlocal
Information?

This fascinatingly
complex and humourously written article considers the failure of the
scientific
paradigm to understand the power and effectiveness of shamanic
journeying. It
fails because "The prevailing neuroscientific paradigm considers
information processing within the central nervous system as occurring
through
hierarchically organized and interconnected neural networks." These
networks
are simply not fine and complex enough to perceive shamanic levels of
reality.However, "When the size
of the hierarchical components reaches the nanometer range and the
number of
elements exceeds that of the neuroaxonal system, an interface emerges
for a
possible transition between neurochemical and quantum physical events."
And, wouldn't you know it, our beloved shamanic realities are, as Terry
Pratchett would say, definitely 'Quantum.'

My
brief sentences
and quotations can not summarize 30 pages of closely reasoned
presentation!
Please read this article.Yes, for a
couple of bucks for copying and postage, I will be happy to send you a
copy.
Or, better yet, writeto Molar and
Kelemen Oriental Publishers (molnar@folkscene.hu) and subscribe to Shaman
(it
is costly and
it includes membership in the ISSR). You won't regret it.

This summer brought me a
dream come true. I traveled to Hungary, land of my ancestors, to attend
the 8th conference of the International Society for Shamanistic
Research, and to present with Crow a paper on the work we have
dedicated ourselves to for the last 25 years-- teaching the healing art
of shamanism to contemporary Westerners, practicing that art as healers
ourselves. It was a magnificent and challenging journey from beginning
to end. It was also a journey to the land of my
mother's people,
for spiritual renewal and renewal of ties with my family and the
ancestors, particularly poignant because my connection with the
ancestors is very strong, but contact with the family still in Hungary
had been largely broken, due to the Soviet presence there after WW II,
and to language barriers in my generation. My mother's grandparents all
came from Hungary in the years before 1900, and though my grandparents
spoke Hungarian and my mother learned it as a child, I have only had
the food, the music and the folk dances to tie me to the culture and
the land.
Before I tell the story though, thanks are due. Thanks first of all to
Spirit and the spirits, especially the ancestor spirits, for guidance
and help. For many reasons,
looking back on it, it feels like the answer to a prayer and the gold
at the end of an ancestral rainbow.

Thanks secondly to Crow, who first brought the possibility up for
consideration, after pursuing it quietly, getting details and making
contact with the conference organizers. At times when I despaired and
was ready to throw in the towel, he was supportive and encouraging,
holding faith. Sometimes when one wants something very much, it is
easier to give up than to face disappointment.

Thanks thirdly to all of those friends and students who supported, with
journeywork (thank
you, Athens Drumming Circle!), good thoughts and energy, and donations.
Without those it would not have been possible. Thanks
especially to Chris Forester, friend and benefactor in England, who
just weeks before we were to go
called us to check on plans, and made payment arrangements for the
tickets
so we could stop sweating.

Thanks to the president, Dr Mihaly Hoppal, and staff, Cornelia Buday
and
David Somfai Kara, of the ISSR, and Adam Molnar, folklorist,
publisher and travel
consultant, who
worked so hard to produce a quality conference, and who made us --
mavericks that we are -- welcome, who valued our contribution and made
our time in Hungary comfortable, joyful and a wonderful learning
experience.

Thanks to my family in Hungary, who welcomed us with open arms,
especially my cousin Andras, who became like a brother to me. On very
short notice he took time from a busy schedule to show us the sights
and take us visiting.

So-- the travelog. I am including remarks from Crow's memoirs of the
trip in red.

We left from the Columbus airport, flying into London's Gatwick Airport
on Tuesday morning, where Chris picked us up and drove us to his place
in West Sussex. We got to meet Willow, Chris and Sharon's baby born
this past New Year's Eve, and had some time to get over jet lag with a
couple of chilled out rest days, spending time with the family. I spent
some of that time teaching Brogan (Sharon's 13 year old daughter and
Chris' new step-daughter) how to bead, and we
took part in a ceremony in which I became Willow's co-Goddess Mummy,
sharing the honor with one of Sharon's good friends, Kai. We had a
lovely time getting to know the family better and it helped us get
prepared for the next phase of our journey.

On Friday morning Chris took us to the airport and we took Malev, the
Hungarian airline, to Budapest, catching a taxi to the Folklore
Institute. We
were to take the tour bus up to the conference center, but the bus was
full for the first trip, so we sat in Dr. Hoppal's office at the
Institute, talking with interesting people for several hours
before finally catching the 4:00 bus to the center. It was there in Dr.
Hoppal's office that we
learned more of my cousin Andras' history. Dr. Hoppal was not only his
mentor but his good friend. Andras has advanced degrees in both
anthropology and psychology, and a deep interest in shamanism. This was
an unexpected gift from the universe! We also had a chance to
stroll along the Danube looking at interesting architecture since
the Institute was near the river in a historic part of town.

The
conference center, Hotel
Manreza, which is run by the Jesuits, is about an hour and a
bit north of Budapest, in the
Pilis mountains. This is what is called the Great Bend, which is where
the Danube, which flows through Northwestern Hungary, begins to flow
south. It is incredibly beautiful country, largely forested and
pristine, with small neat villages and small farms scattered throughout
the foothills and up into the higher elevations. The terrain is rather
like the Hocking Hills country near Dragon Waters, where Crow and I
live in Southeast Ohio. Lots of oak, ash, beech, birch and similar
trees, but also many elders, which were blooming profusely when we were
there, hawthorns, some evergreens, and also trees I was unfamiliar
with. The Hungarians are also avid gardeners and we saw vegetable
and flower gardens everywhere.

The conference began that evening, with the dinner meal. The food was
incredible, fresh and home-cooked, with lots of Hungarian cuisine and
also other options, including vegetarian food. The best coffee I have
ever had, strong but small cups! (not quite espresso) and lots of good
quality teas. Lunch
and
dinner were served buffet style, with two soups and several main
courses, and breakfast (also buffet) included eggs, real Hungarian
style sausages,
homemade breads, as well as cooked cereals and granolas and pastries.
The desserts were very good but I almost never had them. Crow was in
seventh heaven. So was I! It even inspired Crow to try some Hungarian
cooking at home. When we "eat Hungarian" at Dragon Waters it is usually
my cooking, from my grandmother's recipes.

...the food at the
conference center was excellent and the two
meals we had during our day of conference touring (see below)were
extraordinary. One of
those was at a game restaurantwhere we enjoyed both venison, in the
goulash
soup, and wild boar in an exquisitely appropriate sauce of 'fruit de
bois'. Oh yes, the desert was huge baked apples stuffed with
hazel nut
paste and enrobe with creamy custard. (Ed note: he forgot to
mention the pitchers of Hungarian red wine!!)

After dinner on Friday
a group of Hungarians who practice contemporary
neo-shamanism arrived to open the conference with a drumming circle
including
singing shamanic chants and songs in Hungarian and English. We heard
the familiar
"Long-wing Feathers" chant in both English and Hungarian! Afterwards
shamanic prayers for peace and the healing of the earth, and some
introductory remarks by Dr. Hoppal.

Saturday morning the conference began in earnest. The itinerary for
Saturday, Sunday and Monday was much the same: breakfast at 8:00, then
scholarly presentations beginning at 9:00, a coffee/tea break with
Hungarian pastries at 11:00, then more papers and presentations till
Lunch at 1:00. Then afternoon sessions till dinner break at 5:00, again
with a mid afternoon coffee break. There were some ethnographic films
in
the daytime, but most were relegated to the evening, which began around
7. In some cases the films and evening programs didn't finish till
11:00 or midnight. Each daytime
session
began with a panel of three papers by prominent scholars in the field
of shamanic research, then the rest of us presented our work. There was
then time for questions from the participants.

Crow and I presented our paper the first day, and it was very well
received. (We plan to post the paper on our web site sometime this
winter as part of an update to the site). In addition to films and
lectures about current fieldwork
with tribal and shamanic cultures in Siberia, Asia, South America and
Malaysia, there were presentations by people working with neo-shamanic
techniques in a variety of settings in Europe and the United States.

There
were no more that 50 of us all together: several of the world's
leading
scholars of shamanism, researchers in numerous fields besides
anthropology and
ethnology, new scholars (in their 20s, just finishing first degrees)
and old
(in their late 60s, early 70s with many degrees), from Hungary,
Germany,
Denmark, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, US (Ohio, Missouri,
Maryland,
DC, NYC), China, Japan, but no one now living or working in the UK. And
one
tribal shaman from Mongolia, there with a Chinese interpreter.
The
official language for presentations was English but what was spoken in
the
dining hall could be any of the above. One often heard Russian/
Mongolian/Siberian dialects since much of the fieldwork is being done
in those
languages. Happily, most people were very kind and multilingual so they
were
able to pamper us in English. I was happy to find that I can
still
understand a bit of German.

A sampling of the presentations made to the conference: A
German couple use shamanic journeywork in their psychotherapeutic
practice, working with clients using the ecstatic postures of Dr.
Felicitas Goodman*. Another
couple, Hungarians, who also use shamanic journeywork in their
psychotherapeutic practice, work with a core-shamanic approach similar
to what is common among neo-shamans in the United States, and is not
derived from a tribal tradition. An
Austrian music therapist working with adolescent cancer patients,
autistic children, and adults with brain injuries (using music,
drumming and movement based in Sufi practices) and a Hungarian
psychologist doing research into brain states and the effects of
drumming presented a film and papers. An American theologian
who
teaches at Georgetown University is a member of one of Felicitas
Goodman's on-going groups in the DC area and
presented a paper about
their
work with one of the shamanic postures highlighted in her books and
manuscripts. Our paper of course was also in the category of
neo-shamanic revival.

A
major focus for this 8th meeting of the conference was the survival and
revival
of shamanism both in the west and among tribal peoples. Our
presentation,
right after lunch on the first day of the conference, lead off this
segment and
was very well received. Uniquely, we had a small altar in front of us
on the
speakers' table and Bekki sang in the Ancestors before I read the body
of the
paper. What a rapt audience we had! There
were 30 plus folks in our audience, about average for a well attended
session. Unfortunately things were structured so that prolonged
discussion after the paper did not happen though we got a couple of
good
questions and plenty of discussion with interested folks went on
throughout the
rest of our time there; one advantage to presenting early on.
While our
paper challenged listeners to take exception, no one did. I think
everyone
there, scholars and shamans alike, was very gratified at all good
evidence that
shamanism continues to survive and be effective in today's world.

In addition to papers
and films, there were several artists attending
the conference. About 100 pieces of sculpture by a well-known
woodcarver who has added shamanic themes to his work ( in the
traditional Hungarian folk style) were displayed throughout the
conference center, and a painter displayed her pieces documenting
visionary experiences she had during a trip to sacred sites in Central
and South America. Another artist created a sculptural installation in
the woods near the center, using the theme of the World Tree, which is
basic to shamanism among most shamanic peoples.

In addition to the conference proceedings, on Monday evening after
dinner the conference organizers had arranged to bring in a three-piece
folk band and a folk dance teacher for four hours of Hungarian folk
music and dance in the Transylvanian style
(circle dances). Tuesday, the last full day of the conference, was
devoted to
touring the area around the Great Bend (of the Danube), north of
Budapest, the general area where the conference center was located. We
toured the ruins of a castle at Visigrad overlooking the Danube; a
cathedral in
Estergom, one of the oldest and most famous cities in Hungary; and
a re-constructed village (it has two parts, a 14th century
village and a 19th century village, and we toured the second part,
which had cottages and workshops for saddle- and boot- makers, wine
makers, barrel makers, an herb garden and so on). In
the middle of the day we had a traditional Hungarian meal in a rustic
lodge/restaurant in the mountains, overlooking the Danube, and were
serenaded by a gypsy orchestra. That evening there was another drumming
circle to close the formal part of the conference, and my cousin Andras
came up to see us and discuss arrangements for our time in Budapest,
and to talk about family connections and get to know each other a bit.
We hit it
off immediately. The next day we participated in the
ISSR's organizational meeting before leaving for Budapest.

The bus from the conference center took us to the Folklore Institute in
Budapest in the early afternoon, where we took leave of the many good
friends we had made at the conference. We met my cousin Andras
at the
Institute, and he drove us to the other side of the city to a lovely
bed and breakfast, Hotel Manzard Panzio, which is a short walk from his
apartment. We were to stay there that night (Wednesday) and the two
following nights, leaving early in the morning for a 7 am flight home.
After getting settled in and having a short rest, Andras returned to
take us to his apartment, where his girlfriend Orsolya had prepared a
lovely
meal for us. We spent hours talking and sharing, eating good food
and drinking brandy and wine produced by Andras' brother's vinyards,
located not in our ancestral lands but south of Budapest. On
Thursday Crow and I toured the city (the National Museum, the open air
market) and ate dinner in a lovely little restaurant downstairs from
Andras' and Orsolya's apartment, folky, modestly priced, a local pub
sort of place. We had wild boar and venison and accompaniments, wine
for me and beer for crow. Then we met Andras and Orsolya for an evening
of folk dancing in a club uptown. Transylvanian circle dances again,
but also the csardas and other couples dances. Finally we dragged home
so that we could get some sleep before getting up early to drive to see
the family in Aranyos, 2 1/2 hours away. We arrived at lunch time.
Andras' mother Erzebet had lunch on the table.

Our
first family connection, out in the country, was a lovely Goulash Soup
lunch
with Andras' mother.
(Ed. Note: This included apricot brandy; soup, home-made cheese
biscuits, and wine; and palacsinta, which are dessert crepes usually
served with butter and jam or honey, in this case both honey and
home-made apricot jam!!!! served with wonderful Hungarian coffee.)
She was the first person from her tiny village to
receive a college education. She returned with it to become a
teacher in
the one room school house for most of her working life. Needless
to say
the family is very proud of Andras who, with two PhDs and a life in
Budapest,
still comes home almost every week.

After lunch we visited
the family cemetery, a short walk from the house. We put roses
from Erzebet's garden on my great great grandparents' graves, and had a
short visit with Veronika Danyi, the wife of another Danyi, uncle
to Andras, who lives in the ancestral house. We had a bit of wine and a
snack in the garden, while a
heron flew over us in a circle 8 times, and got our water
bottles. Then Andras had a special place he wanted to take us, "if we
were up to a bit of a walk". He drove us to a neighboring village, to a
parking spot below some vinyards. It
took us 45 minutes to climb to the top of the mountain-- it is higher
than it looks, and more precipitous at the top third. There was a
peacefulness and beauty to it that is very hard to communicate. We
wanted to stay a much longer time than we were able to do, but
Andras had another surprise, a visit to a friend's commercial wine
cellar, where we sampled three white wines, and had several bottles
pressed into our hands.

Andras
loves the country, his village and family. He also loves his
wine-making
friends. Almost every household in the Tokaji region has its own
wine
cellar. Andras has one too but is not able to work it at the
moment. That does not stop him from joining in the weekly wine
tasting
society which goes from cellar to cellar, tasting, testing and making
predictions and recommendations for the fate of the vintages in the
barrels in
the cellars. He also knows a young vintner who has obtained an
old, run
down winery and is reviving it. We visited and tasted there,
after our
afternoon on the shaman's mountain. Very respectable wines
indeed; all
white, one fruity but dry, one very oaky and one a delightful desert
wine.

We headed back to
Andras' house to pick up his
mother, took a short rest from the effects of hike and wine, then
headed off to visit another branch of the family.

Dinner
was with a delightful gathering of about a
dozen relatives from 70 or 80 to 8 or 9 years of age; some of the older
relatives remember the visits of Bekki's grandmother from the US in the
1960’s and 70's.
There was lots of looking at old photos (some gathered and brought by
Bekki,
some from local collections) with memories and attempts at remembering
everyone’s' names. The whole is to be gathered, collated, named,
dated
and copied so both sides of the Atlantic may benefit.

The
food for dinner was comprised of classic Hungarian dishes: a lovely
fish
soup made with carp and a simple and tasty pork, sauerkraut and sour
cream
dish. It was preceded by a long fruit brandy- and wine-tasting in the
onsite
wine cellar of Bekki's third cousin's husband, our host, who is a stone
mason,
owning a very elaborate stone working yard, and a prizewinning wine and
brandy
maker. His cellar actually has picnic tables where one sits (with a
"cellar jacket" on) to enjoy the vinous products of his
labours. All the wines we had in Hungary were excellent but I
have fallen
in love with the fruit brandies, each a very clear essence of a single
fruit. The apricot was unbelievable in its perfume but I liked
the pear
especially.

We had bottles of fruit brandy and wine pressed on us again. And two
lovely brandy (Crow says "wine") glasses, with the image of the
shaman's mountain complete with cross etched on them, now the pride of
my china cabinet, inherited from my dad's sister this summer.

The
party ended late and we were late back to Budapest and up
before 5am the next morning for the start of the return process of 24+
hours. Andras drove us to
the airport, put us on the plane, and we bid Hungary and family a fond
adieu.

*Dr. Goodman's book Where
Spirits
Ride the Wind is a good
introduction
to her work. She was a Hungarian scholar who immigrated to the United
States and and taught at Denison University in Ohio for many years, and
founded the Cuyamungue Institute based on her work in Santa Fe NM.
She died in the late 1990s.

Andras' house in AranyosBekki's third cousin Andras lives and works
in Budapest, but maintains a home in Aranyos which he and his
girlfriend Orsolya share ownership of with his mother Erzebet.
Aranyos is a small village in north-eastern
Hungary where Bekki's great-grandmother, Veronika Danyi, was born and
lived till she immigrated to the United States at age 13. Andras'
great-grandfather was one of her
brothers. Aranyos is not on any Hungarian
map. The house you see is Andras' house,
the house behind it is the one the Danyis
owned, and that Veronika and her siblings
grew up in.
The house is still owned and lived in by
members of the Danyi family. This type of
house was a common style in these villages.
This region of Hungary is known as the Tokaji region and is famous for
its wines. The small stone cellar to the left of the house is for
storing wine and vegetables.

Bekki's cousin Andras in
his apartment in Budapest

The Shaman's Hill looks deceptively small,
but it took us 45 minutes of vigorous climbing
to reach the top. To the left is the monastery which owned the vineyard
and wine cellar
directly in front of the path. Below, you can see
a close up of the wine cellar and nearly life-size statue of the Virgin
Mary that can barely be seen in the above photo.

To the left, a view
of the top of the hill and the area where we did the ceremony. The
colored spots to the left of the Cross's base are our rattles.

This part of Hungary is at the edge
of the Carpathian Mountains, north and east of the city of Miskolc.

This scene is the view of the
village of Aranyos and surrounding villages from the top of the
shaman's mountain.
In the distance are more mountains, and of course the farms and
vinyards this area is known for.

I was actually quite close to the edge when taking this picture, for
the top is very steep.

WWF
is one
of the world's largest and most
experienced independent conservation organizations, with almost 5
million supporters and a global network active in more than 100
countries.

WWF's Mission:
To stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to
build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by:

conserving the world's biological diversity

ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources
is sustainable

promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful
consumption

WWF
is
active all over the world and has programs throughout
Europe. Some of the projects it is working on in Hungary and
Central Europe include global warming especially as it impacts the
Danube River Basin; navigation issues in the Danube river basin;
agriculture and rural development issues; biodiversity; and financing
nature conservation.

You
can
find out more about WWF's projects in Hungary and other parts of the
world by checking out the web site.

There are environmental groups in Hungary, but many of the web sites
are in Hungarian.

One
of
my favorite English language sites about nature conservation in Hungary
is a general (not exclusively about Hungary) educational site for young
people, which highlights the Foundation
for Otters. The site is called Horizon Solutions. the link
for the Foundation will take you to the page about it, which talks
about otter and wetlands conservation efforts in Hungary ( and it has
really cute pictures of otters).

One of the reasons that otter conservation
in Hungary is so important is that currently otters are disappearing
really fast everywhere in Europe, AND the larges population exists in
Hungary and the Czech Republic. The man who founded the Foundation is
Pal Gera.

Pal conducted surveys of otter
populations in several parts of Europe. According to his results, there
are between 1500 and 2000 otters living in Hungary and in the Czech
Republic. In Western Europe the whole otter population includes about
700 to 800 otters.

Bekki's
Art
Two views, top (foreshortened) and underside, of an Eagle
rattle I made
for an English friend who took our Fundamentals there a few years ago.
She has a special connection to the White Horse of Uffington, an effigy
carved in the chalk downs, and to spirals, so they are painted on the
Eagle's green belly, a connection to the energies of Gaia.

Church of Earth Healing
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we cast our net widely.

We
love to write and
have lots of good material to share. We also value your outlook,
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